Here's the thing nobody tells you about this category: several of the most famous grandparent books are not for the grandchild at all. They're for the grandparent. Adults weep at them; the child on the lap blinks and asks for a different one. That's the single most useful fact on this page, so this shelf sorts by who each book is really for — your grandchild, you, or the two of you together — and says so plainly under each one. Pick one and stop. Three of them are also near-certain to be on your grandchild's shelf already, and the notes tell you which.
Seven books: pick one by who you're actually buying for and you're done. Sort them that way and this shelf falls into three piles. FOR YOUR GRANDCHILD: 'The Relatives Came' is the only book here about the visit itself — the long drive, the crowded floor, the too-quiet house after — which is your relationship as a child actually lives it, and almost nobody thinks to buy it. 'Guess How Much I Love You' is a bedtime contest a three-year-old can play with their arms. 'Because of Winn-Dixie' is for an older child entirely, and it's a novel. FOR THE TWO OF YOU: 'The Wonderful Things You Will Be' was written to be given and inscribed and it says so on the page. 'Grandpa Green' is a great-grandson finding an old man's life in a topiary garden — a wonderful book that is about the grandfather's memory failing, and a grandparent handing it over is saying something. FOR YOU, THE GRANDPARENT: 'Love You Forever' and 'The Giving Tree' both belong here, and being honest about that is the whole reason this page exists. Now the duplicate problem. 'Guess How Much I Love You', 'The Giving Tree' and 'Love You Forever' have sold in the tens of millions and are three of the most-gifted books there are — assume a copy is already on the shelf unless you know it isn't. 'The Relatives Came' and 'Grandpa Green' are the low-duplicate picks, and both are Caldecott Honor books, so you're not trading quality for novelty. Last, the part that matters most on a gift shelf: write in it. A book bought in a shop is a book. The same book with a date, a place and one true sentence in your handwriting inside the front cover is the thing that gets kept for fifty years, and it's the only reliable way a duplicate still beats no gift at all. Don't write 'love from Grandma'. Write where you were, what your grandchild was like the last time you saw them, and one thing you want them to know. The notes under each book say what to write in that particular one.